Canada Day Dessert Pizza

Canada Day is a big event at our house.

We throw some meat on the grill, gather up as much Kokanee as we can, and blare the tunes. All in the name of this beautiful country we call home.

This year, I wanted to do something a bit different.

Of course there will be potato salad, steaks, burgers, and endless potato chips, but why not throw some [healthy] dessert into the mix?

I’ve never made a homemade pizza crust that didn’t come out of a box [gasp!] so when I was planning this recipe, I wanted to take it for a test run before I needed it.

What’s worse than a mushy pizza? A mushy pizza 2 hours before the barbecue begins.

Thankfully the test run was a success!

And, it also doubles as a fantastic breakfast, so none of it has gone to waste. I can assure you that!

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Oh Canada Dessert Pizza

Vegan [option], Gluten free, Dairy free, Refined sugar free, Yeast free, Corn free

Impress your barbecue guests this long weekend with this delicious, natural, sugar-free, and gluten-free, dessert pizza. Best of all, you can have the leftovers for breakfast!

Yield: 1 – 8×12″ rectangular dessert pizza

Ingredients

Crust

Lightly adapted from Gluten Free Goddess

• 1 cup tapioca flour
• 1/2 cup sorghum flour
• 1/4 cup brown rice flour
• 1/4 cup millet flour *see note
• 1.5 tbsp palm sugar
• 1 tbsp ground flax seed
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp Himalayan rock salt
• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp warm water [between 110 - 115F - I used a meat thermometer to check ]
• 1/2 tsp palm sugar
• 1 tsp active dry yeast
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large egg *see note
• 1/8 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp palm sugar
• 1/2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Toppings

Maple leaf

• 1/2 cup unsweetened dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup unsweetened dried strawberries
• 2 medjool dates
• 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

Red side stripes

• 1/2 cup grape juice sweetened strawberry jam
• 3 cups fresh organic strawberries, sliced thin

White backing

• 1/2 cup coconut butter, melted
• 1/2 cup unsweetened long shredded coconut

Directions

To make the crust:

1. Preheat the oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together tapioca flour, sorghum, brown rice flour, millet flour, palm sugar, ground flax seed, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. Dissolve the 1/2 tsp of palm sugar in the water before adding the dry yeast and set aside for 5 minutes.
4. Add the yeast to the dry ingredients, then mix in oil, egg and vinegar.
5. Beat the dough until smooth and sticky. The pizza dough should be creamy smooth and not too thick- it’s not sturdy like typical bread dough. It almost borders on batter, but can still be formed somewhat.
6. Scoop dough onto prepare pan. Using clean hands press down lightly and flatten the dough to create a thin, even rectangle. Take your time to smooth out the dough. Set the pizza shell in a warm spot to rest and rise for 15 minutes.
7. Brush with olive oil, cinnamon, and sugar before placing in the prepared oven for 10-12 minutes, or until golden.
8. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes

The toppings:

1. Beginning with your maple leaf, place all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Drop mixture onto a sheet of parchment. Place another sheet of parchment over top, and roll the mixture until it’s about 1/2″ thick. You should now have a perfect flat surface to cut into with a cookie cutter! The cookie cutter may get stuck on the mix, if so, roll back out, place in the freezer for 10 minutes, and retry. I had to be very patient removing the maple leaf from the cookie cutter, but it did work! Set aside.
2. Begin brushing jam on either side of the pizza with a spoon until fully coated. Place sliced strawberries on top.
3. Slowly pour melted coconut butter in the middle of the pizza until the middle portion is covered. Sprinkle with coconut, being sure not to get any on the red portion.
4. Top with your maple leaf and you’re ready to party!

note: I ground millet in my coffee grinder into a flour, then sifted to remove any larger pieces. I bet buckwheat flour would work, too!

note: I bet you could replace the egg in this recipe with 1 flax eggs. Combine 1 tbsp of freshly ground flax seed with 3 tbsp of water and let sit for 5 minutes, then use as you would an egg.

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I bet it’d  be easy enough to make an American flag too!

• Red stripes: use the same strawberries and jam I’ve used
• White stripes: use the same white section I’ve used
• Blue corner: blueberries, halved on top of blueberry jam
• Stars: if you’re not picky on color, little chunks of pineapple would be good, or you could use dried mulberries!

Mmm breakfast…

The pizza was so big! I have no doubt that it will feed 12 people and then some.

I let the pieces chill overnight, then wrapped them in plastic wrap and stuck them in the freezer. The crust freezes really well!

I doubled the recipe and ended up whipping together a dinner style pizza, too!

I followed the same directions above, but didn’t allow the crust to cool. Instead, I topped it with toppings, and placed it back in the oven [on broil] for 5 minutes, or just until the cheese was melted.

The dinner pizza version was missing a bit of the tang that regular pizza dough has. I think next time I’ll try to increase the apple cider vinegar to see if that helps it slightly. Other than that, it was delicious and a fraction of the cost of a store bought gluten-free pizza mix.

Kevin’s half had: bacon, non-dairy cheese, peppers, red onions, and tomatoes

My half: ground kidney beans, green onions, red onions, peppers, cremini mushrooms, and sun-dried tomatoes.

It was the first time I’d tried chopping the topping ingredients in the food processor. It was so easy, and the pieces were small enough that they cooked really well in the 5 minutes they had under the broiler.

My life has been full of pizza eating this week, and I don’t mind it in the slightest!

Are you having a Canada Day/Independance Day shindig?

What types of foods do you like to make for barbecues?

Tagged as: canada day, canada pizza, dessert pizza, pizza, sweet pizza